DEDICATION. vii 



trusively exerted) towards their particular welfare, as 

 well as to the more general furtherance of the 

 schemes of humanity in which they were engaged, 

 and the great exertions you have gone through. 



You are well aware that I have always entertained 

 the most sanguine views with regard to the discovery 

 ships; and that, notwithstanding nearly eight years 

 have elapsed since tidings were received, I still see 

 no reason to despair. A mass of evidence is before 

 us* to show that the Polar regions abound in animal 

 life : the cases of four Russian sailors who spent six 

 years on Spitzbergen, 1743-9, and that of Sir John 

 Ross and party, who were four years ice-bound, 

 afford precedents for the existence of the party now 

 sought for; and when we consider moreover that 

 only the mere portals have yet been passed, and 

 scarcely the tlireshold entered upon of that vast 

 unknown region, in any part of which it is possible 

 the missing voyagers may be detained, we may relieve 

 ourselves from fear of a charge of unreasonableness 

 or obstinacy in the persistence of earnest hope that 



* Wrangell, Anjou, Parry, Richardson, Petemiann, &c. 



